Rich Negrin

“The most egregious problem … is the approximately $160,000 overtime in 311 for the period studied,” he said, adding, “They’re working in a secret VIP call center that doesn’t comply with what the job description says.”

Everett Gillison, deputy mayor for public safety, says the spike in homicides, combined with the raw emotional impact of the Trayvon Martin case, pushed the Nutter administration to verbalize its tactics.

Days after the City Controller’s audit on the spike in the number of provisional ballots cast at Philadelphia polls in the 2012 election, a fact-finding team appointed by Mayor Nutter has released its own version of what went wrong.

This is National Volunteer Week, and here in Philadelphia the importance of ordinary people who respond to emergencies took on special meaning in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings just one week ago.